Outsourced plant operations and maintenance specialist Minopex, a member of DRA Group, has been awarded three contract renewals in 2014, which MD Gerhard Hendriksz says is indicative of the value-add service that the company offers.
The company has been awarded another five-year contract with London-listed Gem Diamonds for the Letšeng diamond mine, in Lesotho, a two-year contract with TSX- and Nasdaq-listed Lucara Diamonds for the Boteti mine, in Botswana, and a five-year contract with Phola Coal, which is an Anglo American Inyosi Coal and BHP Billiton Energy Coal South Africa joint venture, in Mpumalanga.
All these contracts are on a fixed-and-variable contract basis, which leans better towards corporate governance and transparency with clients.
The ‘fixed’ component covers most of the site and labour expenses and costs are recovered from the client on a monthly basis. The ‘variable’ component covers procurement of spares and process consumables on a month-to-month basis and is done through the Minopex integrated procurement system by means of SAGE X3.
Hendriksz says partnering with Minopex allows the client to focus on its key mining activities, while Minopex takes responsibility for the operation and maintenance of the mineral processing plant, including recruitment and training of staff from local communities. This approach reduces the overall cost to the client.
“As a service provider, you need to be able to add value to the client’s bottom line with effective and efficient systems, which includes well- trained staff in all disciplines.”
Hendriksz says staffing is becoming more of a challenge, specifically in neighbouring countries, where legislation increasingly advocates the training of local workers, instead of using more experienced expatriate labour to assist in operations.
The company currently has 14 clients and operates and maintains 15 sites across Southern Africa. Most of its business is in the chrome, platinum, coal, diamonds and gold sectors in South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Tanzania, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The company is expecting more work to come from the platinum, gold, iron-ore and coal sectors in Africa and the Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia.
“We are currently in a holding pattern, as is the whole mining industry, but renewed growth is forecast for around 2016,” Hendriksz states.
The firm currently employs 1 500 people and this is likely to increase in the next two years.
Minopex complies with the social and labour plans of all its clients and spends about 4% of its labour bill on training and devel- opment.